“Wretch!” cried Sanza, seeing that Banzayemon was trying to fool him, “have I not had enough of your vile tricks?  At any rate, if I cannot get back the sword, your head shall be laid before my lord in its place.  Come,” added he, stamping his foot impatiently, “defend yourself.”

“With all my heart.  But not here in this tea-house.  Let us go to the Mound, and fight it out.”

“Agreed!  There is no need for us to bring trouble on the landlord.  Come to the Mound of the Yoshiwara.”

So they went to the Mound, and drawing their swords, began to fight furiously.  As the news soon spread abroad through the Yoshiwara that a duel was being fought upon the Mound, the people flocked out to see the sight; and among them came Token Gombei and Shirobei, Banzayemon’s companions, who, when they saw that the combatants were their own friend and the strange Samurai, tried to interfere and stop the fight, but, being hindered by the thickness of the crowd, remained as spectators.  The two men fought desperately, each driven by fierce rage against the other; but Sanza, who was by far the better fencer of the two, once, twice, and again dealt blows which should have cut Banzayemon down, and yet no blood came forth.  Sanza, astonished at this, put forth all his strength, and fought so skilfully, that all the bystanders applauded him, and Banzayemon, though he knew his adversary’s sword to be blunted, was so terrified that he stumbled and fell.  Sanza, brave soldier that he was, scorned to strike a fallen foe, and bade him rise and fight again.  So they engaged again, and Sanza, who from the beginning had had the advantage, slipped and fell in his turn; Banzayemon, forgetting the mercy which had been shown to him, rushed up, with bloodthirsty joy glaring in his eyes, and stabbed Sanza in the side as he lay on the ground.  Faint as he was, he could not lift his hand to save himself; and his craven foe was about to strike him again, when the bystanders all cried shame upon his baseness.  Then Gombei and Shirobei lifted up their voices and said—­

“Hold, coward!  Have you forgotten how your own life was spared but a moment since?  Beast of a Samurai, we have been your friends hitherto, but now behold in us the avengers of this brave man.”

With these words the two men drew their dirks, and the spectators fell back as they rushed in upon Banzayemon, who, terror-stricken by their fierce looks and words, fled without having dealt the death-blow to Sanza.  They tried to pursue him, but he made good his escape, so the two men returned to help the wounded man.  When he came to himself by dint of their kind treatment, they spoke to him and comforted him, and asked him what province he came from, that they might write to his friends and tell them what had befallen him.  Sanza, in a voice faint from pain and loss of blood, told them his name and the story of the stolen sword, and of his enmity against Banzayemon.  “But,”